The result is a killing back of the soft wood, but
usually no serious loss to the trees. The effort to stimulate late
summer growth by cultivation and fertilization is all wrong; use manures
and fertilizers freely from March until early June, but not later. The
fall mulch of manure, if used, is more for warmth than for fertility; it
is a blanket for the roots, but much of its value is leached away by the
suns and rains of winter.
I felt that I had made a mistake in not sowing a cover crop in my
orchard the previous year. There are many excellent reasons for the
cover crop and not one against it. The first reason is that it protects
the land from the rough usage and wash of winter storms; the second,
that it adds humus to the soil; and the third, if one of the legumes is
used, that it collects nitrogen from the air, stores it in each knuckle
and joint, and holds it there until it is liberated by the decay of the
plant. As nitrogen is the most precious of plant foods, and as the
nitrate beds and deposits are rapidly becoming exhausted, we must look
to the useful legumes to help us out until the scientists shall be able
to fix the unlimited but volatile supply which the atmosphere contains,
and thus to remove the certain, though remote, danger of a nitrogen
famine.
Pages:
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318